Karen KaneConnecting with a new generation of customers

Company Overview

Karen Kane is one of the most respected names in women’s apparel, synonymous with style, comfort and sophistication. Karen Kane was created in 1979 by Karen Kane and her husband, Lonnie Kane, who started the company out of their garage in Studio City, Calif. After launching a successful zebra silk-screen design, the design firm made more than $1 million in its first year of business and moved to a new office in Los Angeles. Due to steady growth and profitability, Karen Kane now operates in a 130,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Vernon, Calif., with corporate showrooms in Los Angeles, New York and Dallas. Karen Kane’s collections are featured in department stores and specialty boutiques nationwide. It wasn’t until 2010 that Karen Kane launched its online lifestyle and shopping destination. Now, all of the designer collections are available online at www.karenkane.com.

The Situation

When the Kane’s son, Michael Kane, joined the family business as director of marketing, he wanted to focus on increasing its online presence to grow the company. “When my parents asked me to join the Karen Kane team, I knew that e-commerce was a big part of what I wanted to change about the company,” said Michael Kane. “We really didn’t have a large presence online, and e-commerce only made up about 2% of our business.”

For Karen Kane to expand its brand exposure and capture more sales, it needed to increase its online presence and focus on e-commerce as an avenue for growth. After launching its online store, the company found it challenging to get traction for the brand online and struggled to keep up with the frequent changes that occur on the various online channels. With an incredibly prosperous history in-store, Michael Kane needed to make the necessary adjustments to develop a successful online strategy for Karen Kane.

The Solution

Karen Kane evaluated how to optimize its online presence, and ultimately decided that ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing was the solution. By using ChannelAdvisor’s technology, the company’s products are more visible to consumers online. When Google shifted from product search to Google Shopping, many of Karen Kane’s customers began visiting the website through paid search and purchasing products through Product Listing Ads on Google.

Additionally, ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing helped Karen Kane track customer behavior online so that the company could modify its strategy to reach new customers and optimize the process to increase conversion.

The Results

“With ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing, we accelerated our online advertising strategy,” said Michael Kane. “We are now finding new customers online, getting our placements in the right locations and making sure the right people are seeing our ads. With the support of ChannelAdvisor, we can now be more aggressive with our online business strategy.”

E-commerce now comprises about 20% of Karen Kane’s total business, up from 2% when Michael Kane first joined the company. In the past year, KarenKane.com’s revenue increased 68%. After discovering the opportunity to grow with digital marketing, the design firm is now taking its online business strategy to the next level.

“Working with ChannelAdvisor has been eye-opening for me and revolutionary for our online business,” said Michael Kane. “We have connected with a whole new generation of shoppers who may not have discovered us in stores and are now finding us online. It has been exciting to hear how people recognize the brand, yet have never seen it in a store.”